


Gingerbread man

by Xiime



Series: Usuk Winter Wonderland Week 2015 [4]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternative Universe - Human, Cooking, Day 4: Holiday Preparations, Day 5: Cozying up Together, England's cooking, M/M, Mentions of Francis and Canada, They act like 5-year-olds during the whole thing xd, USUK Winter Wonderland Week, sorry about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 08:37:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5450273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xiime/pseuds/Xiime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because of some circumstances, Alfred and Arthur end up cooking gingerbread men cookies and, as it always is when you put Arthur and cooking together, it doesn't go as expected...</p><p>(Arthur was "taking care" of lazy Alfred in the last fic, so Alfred is "taking care" of angry-at-himself Arthur in this one ^^)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gingerbread man

**Author's Note:**

> I intended to post this yesterday for the "Holiday preparations" but then it got longer than expected and I couldn't finish it on time :P 
> 
> So yeah. I don't know if I'm getting better or worse at writing. Anyways! Enjoy :D

“Look what I bought!” shouted Alfred happily when he opened the door to their shared apartment.

He was carrying four big bags full of groceries and other stuff that he had gone to buy that morning.

Arthur, who was in the kitchen about to start setting up the table, went to meet Alfred at the entrance, grabbing two of the bags and carrying them to the kitchen.

“What did you bought that has gotten you so excited?” he asked Alfred, who was practically skipping to the kitchen with the other bags in his hands.

“Open the bags,” Alfred said grinning, and Arthur did as he was told.

He took out some flour, some eggs and other ingredients.

“W-what’s this for?” he asked. Alfred almost laughed out of excitement.

“It’s for cooking gingerbread men cookies!" he explained. "I thought it’d be awesome if, you know, we called Francis, Mattie and Gil today," he said, gesticulating withhis hands. "Francis can cook them, and we can help him” he said grinning, as if it was the most incredible idea he could’ve ever had.

“Or _I_ can cook them, and you could help,” Arthur said, thinking. Alfred grimaced but didn’t say anything. “Are you sure they can come today? I mean, it _is_ Christmas day, maybe they already made plans…”

“If we didn’t make plans, then surely they didn’t either," Alfred said like it was the most logical thing in the world. "Let’s call them!” Hea said, pulling out his cellphone.

 

***

 

In the end, it was just the two of them cooking. Francis was going to meat up with Antonio and Gilbert to spend the day in the city centre doing God-knows-what, and Matthew was going to spend the afternoon with his other "snow-loving friends", as Alfred kindly put it, who hadn't been invited to Francis’s Christmas party the previous night.

“It seems that in the end _I’ll_ have to cook them,” said Arthur, sitting at the kitchen table.

Alfred panicked.

“I-it’s not necessary we actually _cook_ them, I just wanted to invite Francis, Gil and Mattie to spend time together! Christmas bonding, you know! My best friend, your best friend -yes Francis is your best friend, admit it- and my brother, who just happens to be my best friend’s boyfriend! Perfect! The cookies were just an excuse, now let me put the ingredients away so we can cook them some other day…” Alfred added quickly, grabbing the stuff and going to put them in the cupboard. Only, before he could even open the cupboard, Arthur jumped from the chair and stopped his hands.

“No, wait! We could cook them together, just the two of us!” he said, seemingly oblivious to how much Alfred (and everybody, actually) feared his cooking. “And we could… how did you say? Bond?”

Alfred seemed to consider it.  


“But you lemme take care of the oven,” he said, turning his head to look at Arthur.

“I don’t particularly mind... But you _must_ cook them well! I don’t want to end up eating some undercooked stuff,” he glared at Alfred before changing his mind. “No, you know what?” Alfred almost groaned. _No, please._ “I’ll take care of the oven. I don’t want to risk it.”

“But I'll cook them properly!” Alfred insisted. “Pleeease, Artie, otherwise I'll never learn to use the oven! You can supervise me, if you want,” Alfred said, not sure if what he had said was wise.

But Arthur nodded, so it must be alright.

“Just this time,” he said scowling.

“Thanks, dude!”

“Whatever."

 

***

 

Everything was going suspiciously well.

The oven was preheating properly, the molds were in place and Arthur and Alfred were taking turns in baking the mix.

“Don’t you think we should add a bit of salt?” Arthur asked, looking absentmindedly at Alfred’s arms while he mixed.

“Salt? Why salt?” Alfred asked, not moving his eyes away from the bowl.

“Because when you make something sweet you should add a bit of salt,” said Arthur as if it was an obvious thing.

“You sure?” Alfred looked at Arthur disbelieving, still mixing.

“Yes, I _am_ sure. It's a basic cooking fact,” Arthur almost rolled his eyes, but contained himself. He couldn’t blame Alfred for not knowing how to cook.

“But it’s not on the recipe,” Alfred insisted.

“But we must!” said Arthur, opening some cupboards until he found the salt. “Just a spoonful, or two.”

“What? No! That’s too much!” Alfred shouted instantly, trying to stop a disaster from happening.  


“It’s alright, it’s not too much,” Arthur said soothingly. He didn’t understand why the other was so flustered.

“Why don’t we just put the salt away and do it by the recipe, huh?” Alfred said before Arthur could grab the spoon and ruin their cookies.

“I don’t understand, why don’t you want our cookies to taste great?" Arthur decided to appeal to Alfred's sense of pity. "I’m two years older than you, you should trust me as your elder,” Arthur said, looking at Alfred with a pretending-to-be hurt expression.

“Don’t say that, I trust you!” _Just not with cooking_. “Aghhh, alright!” He was so going to die when he ate this. But... That face... “But only a bit! Half a teaspoonful.”

“I said one or two spoonfuls,” Arthur answered stubbornly.

“But I think that’s too much, let’s put just a teaspoonful,” Alfred said, grabbing a teaspoon and filling it with salt. Then, he poured it into the bowl. “There, now it’s your turn to mix.”

Unconvinced, Arthur went to relieve Alfred and started to mix.

“It needs more salt,” Arthur muttered under his breath. He took the salt and went to pour some into the bowl, but Alfred reacted just in time and grabbed his hand. Arthur tried to move it away, but Alfred wouldn’t let him. “Just a little bit more!”

“No! It’s already enough!” Alfred answered, trying to take the salt away from Arthur. “Leave it like that!”

“No, it needs more!” he tugged a bit too hard and the cap of the container fell off. Both of them watched, astonished, as the content emptied onto the bowl.

Alfred gaped at the tiny mountain of salt on top of the mix and Arthur scowled. “That was your fault,” the latter said angrily.

“No, it wasn’t,” Alfred replied without thinking, still in shock.

“Yes, it was, I just wanted to put in a bit more of salt!” Arthur said, moving a hand angrily, his scowl deepening.

“But it didn’t need more!” Alfred said, coming out of the shock. Just a second later, he realized the consecuences of this. “And now it’s ruined! What’re we gonna do?!”

Arthur, seeing Alfred's distress, tried to calm down and think of a solution, feeling the responsibility of auto-proclaiming himself the older one here and the one who knew how to cook.

“Let’s try taking some out with the spoon,” he said, pretending to feel confidence.

Alfred raised an eyebrow.

“You sure that’s gonna work?” he asked

“Yes, I am sure, you just watch me,” Arthur replied.

Alfred, back in good humor at seeing Arthur’s determined expression, pointedly looked at the other’s face with a smirk.

“What?” Arthur said, back with his scowl.

“You said I had to watch you, so that's what I'm doing,” Alfred said, his smile turning into a grin. He almost laughed at Arthur's annoyed face, but he just put an arm around Arthur's shoulders and said, “Sorry, Artie, I couldn't resist, you were too cute. You know I love you anyway.”

Arthur knew he was just joking, but he couldn't help feeling a pang in his heart at hearing those words. And it embarrassed him how much he actually wanted to hear Alfred said those words for real.

“C’mon, take the salt out of the bowl, _teacher_ ,” Alfred said mockingly, taking Arthur out of his thoughts.

Arthur huffed.

“Shut up and pay attention," he smiled and raised his chin, grabbing the spoon.  


 

***

 

Alfred and Arthur stared at the black mess in front of them.

“I’m sorry, Alfred,” said Arthur, defeated. “They don’t look at all like they should.”

“No, it’s alright, it wasn’t your fault,” Alfred answered, even though it _was_ Arthur’s fault.

Everything was going well (ignoring the problem with the salt), until they put the cookies in the oven.

Like promised, Alfred was taking care of the oven, but as it was to expect, Arthur had convinced Alfred that if they wanted the cookies to be done faster they should put the oven at the maxim. No need to say it didn’t go as they wanted.

So now they were standing in the burnt-smelling kitchen, surrounded by smoke and heat, with the oven opened to let the smoke go away and with their cookies turned into black stones with gingerbread man’s shape.

“Maybe we should open the window,” Alfred suggested, trying not to let Arthur’s disappointed mood reach him. “I mean, it’s freezing outside, but we can’t just let the apartment smell like smoke, right?” He went to open the kitchen’s window, but when he turned around he was met with an even more miserable-looking Arthur.

“I’m terribly sorry, Alfred, I should have just let you cook. I know everybody says I’m terrible at cooking, and I wanted to prove them wrong, but...” he sighed and looked away. “Leave them here, I’ll clean it up later. I’ll be in my bedroom for now.” He turned around and went to his room, closing the door behind him.

Alfred stared dumbfounded at Arthur’s back until the door closed. _What was that about?_

Ignoring what Arthur had just said, he cleaned up the table, throwing the burnt cookies to the trash and washing everything.

Not knowing what to do next, he just went and opened Arthur’s door, coming in.

Arthur, who was lying on the bed looking at the ceiling, turned his head when he heard noise. When he saw Alfred irrupting in his room, he sat up instantly, scowling.

“What the bloody hell, Alfred, haven’t you ever heard of knocking?!” he said angrily, almost yelling, throwing dagers out of his eyes.  


Alfred, a bit surprised at Arthur’s sudden anger, took a step back.

“Oh, ok, well, sorry for worrying about you, dude! Geez!” he threw his hands in the air in frustration. He hated when Arthur shouted at him when he was trying to do something good. I mean, yeah, he went into his room without knocking, but he _always_ did that. It wasn’t a big deal!

He was about to turn around and storm off angered when he caught a glimpse of Arthur’s face. He stopped and stared. _Is he crying? What the...?_

“Artie? You alright?” he said, now truly worried.

Arthur looked to the side and answered hastily, still with a scowl. “Yes, I am quite alright, now can you please go away?”

Alfred stepped closer, and he could see Arthur looking up to the light bulb and blinking quickly, surely trying to make his eyes stop watering.

“C’mon, dude... Don’t cry,” Alfred said quietly, sitting in the bed next to Arthur.

“Go away, I’ll follow you in some minutes,” Arthur said, still stubborn in not wanting Alfred to see him cry for such a stupid reason.

“At least look at me,” Alfred said, reaching to Arthur’s face. Arthur looked at him from the corner of his eyes.

“What,” he said angrily.

“Why are you crying?" Alfred said completely confused. "They were just some stupid cookies, we can go and buy some later. It’s not a big deal,” he said, not understanding the problem at all.

“It wasn’t just the cookies,” Arthur murmured, looking down. He just wanted to make something for Alfred, he wanted to help and cook something good for him, he just wanted to hear him say _“Thank you”_ or _“You’re incredible”_ in a serious tone. He felt so defeated. B

ut he couldn’t say that, it was too embarrassing and it made him sound like he was desperate for attention. And maybe he was.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry,” Arthur said finally, looking up and forcing a tiny smile. He knew Alfred wasn’t fooled, but whatever. “I’ll take you up on that offer, let’s go buy some biscuits.”

He went to stand up, but Alfred grabbed his hand and pulled him down.

“Wait a sec. Come here,” Alfred said, opening his arms. If Arthur didn’t want to tell him what was going on then he wasn’t going to force him. But he wasn’t going to let him get away that easily either.

Arthur huffed but hugged Alfred anyway, blushing.

“It’s nothing, idiot,” he whispered in Alfred’s ear. “Let it be.”

“Never,” he heard Alfred said. His smile could almost be heard.

Arthur pulled away and punched Alfred in the shoulder, mockingly.

“Now let’s go,” he said, and when he started to stand up again, he felt the same hand grabbing him and pulling him down once more.

“I’m not done yet,” Alfred said, smirking. He put his hand on the back of Arthur’s head and pulled him closer, kissing him softly. When they broke apart, Alfred’s hand kept Arthur there, inches away from the his face. “You know you are perfect for me anyway, right?” he said with a quiet voice, looking at Arthur in the eyes in an almost loving way, almost as if he knew what was that got Arthur so distressed.

Arthur blushed a dark shade of red and pushed Alfred away, standing up and giving his back to the other.

“Let’s get going.” He walked a few steps and then, as if remembering something in the last moment, he stood still. “And thank you,” he said quietly before walking out of the room. Alfred grinned and stood up quickly, following him with a loud laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading~


End file.
